Business Communication Classroom Research Articles

Diversity on a Shoestring: Repurposing Traditional Activities in the Business Communication Classroom

Summer, 1994: The Real World 1A, T-Th, 1:00-2:15. This course introduces issues of importance to the contemporary working professional: working in a multicultural environment; sensitivity to power, gender, disability, socioeconomic, cultural, and lifestyle differences; language, communication, and management skills in a workplace (and world) characterized by diversity. This course listing is hypothetical, but the issues are real. The dialogue that began with multicultural and ethnic issues in the 1980s is being continued and broadened to include diversity. In addition to matters of culture, race, and social practices, topics such as harassment, lifestyles, power, social status, the English-Only Workplace, and relationships between men and women are now matters of concern for our students. But while the term diversity may be another word of the moment, real diversity is challenging society and affecting education. Working students are already directly affected by multicultural and diversity issues, and other students are conversant with them. As a result, they rightfully expect the classroom experience to interpret the world they will encounter throughout their professional and personal lives. DIVERSITY AND THE CLASSROOM Native, international, and working professional students make business communication classrooms highly diversified microcultures. Because these students reflect the makeup of the real world, traditional classroom experiences can be redesigned to draw on the diverse characteristics and experiences of class members. We can address cultural and social diversity within a traditional curriculum by encouraging discussion and interaction on diversity issues. The buffer zone of the classroom allows instructors and students to shape and model professional qualities and behavior that transfer to the workplace. The teaching challenge is to create a classroom culture that requires ongoing critical student reflection on matters of diversity as it provides content learning. AN APPROACH TO TEACHING DIVERSITY Diversity comes with a potent subtext. Attitudes and beliefs not only inform people's behavior they also comprise our systems of meaning and reality, systems that are deep-rooted and resistant to change. Students are, first of all, people who come to us with a variety of belief systems created out of diverse social/cultural experiences and backgrounds. Our younger native students often have minimal or no work experience. Many have not examined their own beliefs or given serious thought to working and living in a diversified world. At the same time, the security provided by their position in the cultural and social mainstream allows them to be more outspoken and sure of the validity of their beliefs and opinions. International students, on the other hand, often have ideas and beliefs that are at odds with those of their classmates. To complicate matters, they may not communicate well because of problems in social interpretation and language. The beliefs of these students can seem traditional, even reactionary, when juxtaposed against contemporary American standards, particularly in areas of management practices and relations between men and women in the workplace. Adult professional students provide counterpoint to both groups. Their backgrounds give them a sense of pragmatism that comes from meeting workplace challenges head on. They have real experiences to share, and they are not hesitant to speak up. Creating a diversity-centered learning environment with this mix of people is challenging and rewarding. My approach aims to provide the sort of learning experiences that remain with students throughout their schooling, and, hopefully, into their professional lives. The approach and the activities that follow are the result of my experiences in trying to connect traditional classroom activities with diversity and the world of work. Strand One: Becoming a Professional in a Diverse World First is the strands approach to instruction. …

Three Sales Letter Themes: Taste It, Try It, Touch It

Sales letters are one type of persuasive letter often assigned in the business communication classroom. This article dis cusses three approaches that require the student to either taste a product, try out an item, or touch an object before writing the sales letter to a prospective audience. The article describes pre-assignment activities, the assignment, and student reaction to the activities. Samples of handouts and student work are included.

Adapting Interactive Cases to the Business Communication Classroom

Adapting Interactive Cases to the Business Communication Classroom

The Role of Cooperative Writing in the Business Communication Classroom: a Research Direction for the1990s

The Role of Cooperative Writing in the Business Communication Classroom: a Research Direction for the1990s

Using Literature to Teach Ethics in the Business Curriculum

This article explores the problems and prospects of incorporating ethics education into the MBA curriculum and the business communication classroom. Although ethics is generally recognized as a crucial area of study, there is little agreement about how it should be included or taught. Moreover, these disagreements often reflect deeply different perspectives on basic pedagogy, the role of business schools, and the links between business and other disciplines. The author argues that literature provides a useful means of restructuring course work to provide ethics instruction and to forge needed links between business and the humanities.

VI Using the Interview Effectively in the Business Communication Classroom

VI Using the Interview Effectively in the Business Communication Classroom

Benefits of Collaborative Planning in the Business Communication Classroom

Benefits of Collaborative Planning in the Business Communication Classroom

Reading Journals in the Business Communication Classroom

Reading Journals in the Business Communication Classroom

Incorporating the Journal Article into the Business Communication Classroom

Incorporating the Journal Article into the Business Communication Classroom

II Using the Newspaper in the Business Communication Classroom

II Using the Newspaper in the Business Communication Classroom

Priorities for the Business Communication Classroom: a Survey of Business and Academe

This paper presents the results of a survey of both business and aca demic leaders on the question of what communication skills and prac tices are most important in the world outside the classroom....